As a kid growing up, the day after Thanksgiving was always a special one. Every year in my childhood, the day after Thanksgiving was always a big day for football. I grew up during the incredibly ugly era of Bengals and UK football known as the 1990's (minus a few years of Tim Couch). There was only one football team I really cared about growing up, and that was the Beechwood Tigers.
I had the
privilege to attend a small and unique K-12 Independent School District in Fort Mitchell, Ky that somehow dominated Kentucky high school football at all
levels in the 1990's. I really doubt if there's a place anywhere like it in the world, where
kindergartner's are in the same school building as the high school football stars that they look up to and idolize and then they eventually grow up to be in those same shoes and wearing that same uniform. They beg their parents to buy them a red or white Tigers' jersey with their favorite players number on it and tiger paws on their shoulders so they can wear them to school on Fridays like all the other kids.
At that time, the elementary kids at that school idolized Beechwood Tigers players more so than even professional players, certainly more than any Bengal player in that era! The day after Thanksgiving was always a day for Beechwood football. It often included a trip down-state to
Pikeville or
Middlesboro and a win would mean a day off of school (for the high
schooler's and the elementary kids) the very next Friday to play in the State Championship Game at old Cardinal Stadium in Louisville. During this decade, Beechwood won 7 Class A State Championships and only missed the Championship Game once, in 1998.
I know what a lot of you are probably thinking..."so what, it's Class A football".
Well, back then....when there were only 4 divisions, Class A football was solid, and Beechwood was the smallest of smallest schools, with graduating classes of about 60 to 70 students. It didn't matter, as they played big, powerful schools from Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky and
consistently embarrassed them. In 1999, Beechwood blew out a
Harrodsburgh team in the State Finals that had two future NFL players (and future UK Wildcats) in Craig Yeast and Dennis Johnson. Beechwood had an 8 year winning streak against 3A power
Covington Catholic during this stretch.
CovCath was considered one of the best programs in the state at any level at the time, and won several 3A State Championships in seasons in which they lost to the small little Class A school down the road in what would become a heated neighborhood rivalry between two schools not even close in size. In 1994, Beechwood became the first team in the state of Kentucky to win four straight State Championships, and to my knowledge, was the first and maybe only ever school in the country of it's size to appear in the USA Today Top 25 National H.S. Football Poll (the only school in Ky ranked that year).
A lot has changed since then, and mostly all for the bad. Not only has Beechwood lost it's luster (they lost 38-0 to
Mayfield tonight), but so has high school football all-together in this state. When the
KHSAA decided to change football from 4 divisions to 6 divisions, they ruined it all. They ruined it from the very top to the very bottom. Instead of rewarding true champions, the
KHSAA decided they wanted to make kids feel better about themselves by providing more teams the opportunity to win, make the playoffs, and compete for one of six "state championships". While other states were competing and preparing their athletes to play at the next level, Kentucky was worried about handing out undeserved
trophies and making kids feel good (like Little League Baseball) and ultimately losing
credibilty and falling behind other states. Class A football especially had now lost all credibility, losing schools like
Danville and Newport Catholic, and also ending playoff regional rivalries like Beechwood vs.
NewCath.
Winning Class A meant something back then. Now, it's a walk in the park until at least the state semi-finals. Beechwood blew out teams that had no business even playing in the post season up until tonight. Tonight, they faced the first decent team they've played in months and they weren't prepared for it because they've played meaningless games against worthless Class A football teams since district play began. With 4 divisions, Class A was a challenge, with 6....it's a joke, which is why Beechwood is not attracting the same
caliber of athletes for football that they used to and why they do not still beat the bigger schools during the regular season.
Not only did the
KHSAA screw up small school football, but it also put an end to the classic big school State Championship Game which usually ended up being between 2 of the 3 big Louisville schools: St. Xavier, Trinity, and Male. This game always attracted 30,000 plus fans and was one of the biggest high school football games in the country. Remember the classic shootout between Brian
Brohm of Trinity and Michael Bush of Male? Andre
Woodson also was a senior that year in Radcliffe. Kentucky high school football was competing, in terms of talent and top recruits that season, with just about any state in the country that compares in size (not California or Texas obviously), outside of the Southeast. For a few years, all the Louisville schools were on the same side of the bracket to give other teams a chance (luckily they changed that this year, the only good change they have made). However, when they finally let the
Louisville schools play each other for the title, they make the brilliant idea of moving the game from Louisville to Bowling Green....
No more excitement. No more fun. No more competition
across the board. Every year, you had your same dynasties in each division competing with each other for a well deserved prize. 1A was always between Beechwood,
Danville,
Mayfield, Murray, or New
Cath. 2A belonged to Belfry or Fort Campbell, 3A belonged to Highlands, Boyle County, or
CovCath. 4A was between Trinity, St. X, or Male. Now, all these teams are playing in different divisions or put in the same region or district to provide opportunity for others to win. There's no longer any big rivalries in each division and there's also no heavyweight's anymore (besides nationally ranked Highlands), and that's not a good thing. Just ask college recruiters who are not making visits anymore to Kentucky. Just ask Rich Brooks who has to rely on the state of Georgia to be competitive in the SEC, and has done quite an exceptional job of doing so as evidenced by his Peach State players showing the Bulldogs last week why they should have been recruited to play at
UGA.
This year, they made the State Championships an even worse event, by moving the site from Papa John's Stadium in Louisville, to
WKU's stadium in Bowling Green. What is the
KHSAA's plans for next season? Roy Kidd Stadium? How does the
KHSAA do such a tremendous job with the Sweet 16 Basketball Tournament at
Rupp, and act so clueless when trying to put together the state football playoffs? Well, here are those "exciting"
matchups that everybody is "dying" to travel all the way to Bowling Green to see....
1A:
LCA vs.
Mayfield (actually a better
matchup than recent years in Class A)
2A:
Desales vs. Fort Campbell (
Desales, are you kidding me? Should be ugly.)
3A:
Paducah Tilghman vs. Somerset (2 schools that probably should not be playing for a title)
4A: Lone Oak vs. Boyle County (Lone Oak?)
5A: Highlands vs. John Hardin (Highlands wins this one by 40...the old system would have had a Highlands/Boyle Country showdown)
6A: St. X vs. Trinity (would be a great game and great atmosphere if played in Louisville)
High School football may not be what it once was in this state, but we are extremely lucky to have the Cats playing in quite possibly their most meaningful game in November, possibly ever tomorrow at Commonwealth Stadium against Tennessee, which is probably where my attention should be right now. I'll try to give a preview in the morning. GO CATS!
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